Signal Mountain Happenings

By Beverly McCormickNews flash: You do have time. Occasionally the calendar even demands it. Leap year is necessary to keep the modern day Gregorian calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun. The year 2016 will have 366 days. Congratulations!

Imagine combining time with the concept of leaping. Jumping, going up substantially, abruptly switching to something, to leap is defined as this and more. There are leaps of faith, quantum leaps and giant leaps for mankind. The mind can take a leap as well as the legs. It may be a good idea to look before you leap. The notion of leaping years and leaping seconds seems to clutter the agenda with a bit of scientific comedy. Humans can leap. Mankind also measures time using the term.

Research reveals that with only 365 days in a year, we could lose almost six hours off our calendar annually. After only 100 years, the Gregorian calendar would be off by approximately 24 days. There’s another measurement referred to as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is used to determine local time zones worldwide. It is primarily based on the combined output of several highly precise atomic clocks, a statistical time scale called International Atomic Time (TAI). Every now and then a leap second is added to UTC in order to synchronize atomic clocks with the Earth’s ever slowing rotation. I discovered the most recent leap second occurred in Chattanooga on Tuesday, June 30, 2015.

Consider time. The magic of a second has the power to avoid an accident, conceive a child, win a race, and still a heartbeat. The routine of a few months can alter the physique, build a house, or create a baby. Years will age you. Decades can impact every aspect of our world. Centuries have moved us beyond candles and into an era that measures light years, R.A.M. and gigabytes. Time has altered our culture and even modified our vocabulary. Memory doesn’t just refer to human recollection. The term web now refers to the entire world, rather than a spider’s home. Time changes things. The influential process of time moves us forward to stand in a different place. In this different place, the cultural perspective will change.

There is an old story about time being compared to “money in the bank.” Conditions exist to limit any ability to save this time. It may be helpful to imagine a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. This bank will carry no balance from day to day. Whatever portion you failed to use during the day is deleted each evening. How should such an investment be handled?

Each of us actually has such a “bank.” The name on the account is time. Every morning this Bank of Time credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night whatever you have failed to invest to good purpose is counted as loss. No balance is carried over. It allows no overdraft or credit. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in happiness, health and lasting success! The clock is running.

Understanding the value of time, a man named David is quoted as saying in Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

To realize the value of:• one year, ask a student who failed a grade, or a soldier on foreign soil• one month, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby• one week, ask the editor of a newspaper• one hour, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet• one minute, ask a person who missed the train or the bus, or ask a waiting transplant patient• one second, ask someone who just avoided an accident• one millisecond, ask the person who won an Olympic silver medal.

This is the year to receive your bonus. The calendar is paying dividends. As the year 2016 leaps, 86,400 seconds will be delivered like a package on the doorstep. Celebrate wisely.